[Hoot Gibson]

Don't believe the spin that Mubarak's fall from power has anything to do with the Egyptian huddled masses yearning to be free or that recent events are anything but a disastrous failure of American foreign policy.

This is the latest Jimmy Carter moment for Barack Obama. The current administration was totally caught off guard by Mubarak's fall and they are still clueless about how it happened.

For those, who like our Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is a secular organization and that Egyptian protesters want a Western-style or any-style democracy, read the following column about the results of a Pew public opinion survey taken in Egypt last year.

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Egypt's conflicting views of democracy and religion

Last year the Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project conducted a survey of opinion in several Muslim countries. The subject was the proper role of Islam in politics and society. One of the countries surveyed was Egypt, and among other discoveries, the Pew researchers found that 84 percent of Egyptians favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim religion.
In another survey, Pew found that 90 percent of Egyptians say they believe in freedom of religion. Pew also found that a majority of Egyptians think democracy, with protections of free speech and assembly, is "preferable to any other kind of government."

How can those attitudes fit together in a democratic post-Mubarak Egypt? It's no wonder so many people can't figure out what is next.

The Pew survey found wide streams of opinion in Egypt that seem at the very least inhospitable to democracy. When asked which side they would take in a struggle between "groups who want to modernize the country [and] Islamic fundamentalists," 59 percent of Egyptians picked the fundamentalists, while 27 percent picked the modernizers. In a country in which the army will likely play a deciding role in selecting the next political leadership, just 32 percent believe in civilian control of the military. And a majority, 54 percent, support making segregation of men and women in the workplace the law throughout Egypt.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2...z1DrklmWtW

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